


Stand Still

by Acaeria



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: (in the form of the kurta massacre), Blood, Character Death, Death, Decapitation, Emetophobia, Gen, Genocide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 05:24:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5855806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acaeria/pseuds/Acaeria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three times Kurapika's world stood still.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stand Still

**Author's Note:**

> So I saw this post: http://daily-prompts.tumblr.com/post/138336067596/prompt-458 and well yeah. 
> 
> The first section of this includes descriptions of decomposing corpses; it's not incredibly graphic, but I thought I'd put a warning just in case.

There was something wrong. 

It was quiet. Too quiet. No wind rustled the leaves of the trees, no birds sang, no creatures rustled in the undergrowth. Even the babbling of the brook was barely a whisper, softer than the sound of his footsteps.

Kurapika sped up.

As he grew closer to home, the silence grew more and more unnerving. With every step he took, the strange smell in the air began to intensify, until it was chokingly thick. It smelled like blood and rotten meat, like burned dinner and waste left out in the summer smell. It was oddly sweet and disgusting and so pungent that his eyes began to water. 

He opened his mouth to take a breath and gagged on the scent. 

He emerged from the shelter of the trees and came to a halt. The joy he’d felt upon finding the medicine for Pairo was nowhere to be found now; all he could do was stand and stare. His mouth opened and from it came a whimper, a sound unlike any he had ever made.

His limbs felt weak and shaky and he slowly fell to his knees. His hands, almost against his will, reached up to cover his face, the feeling of his own flesh strange and foreign and grounding. His eyes burned.

The village was gone. The houses that had stood there only months before had been burned to the ground, only charred remains signifying that something had once stood there. In places the grass was entirely burnt away, and in others it was discoloured. Some of it, though, grew the same as it always had, lush and green. Still alive.

Unlike his Clan. His Clan, whose bodies littered the ground, stained with gaping wounds and bloodstains. Their skin had begun to discolour and rot away, revealing jarringly white bone. Many of the bodies were separated from their heads; some of the heads were missing.

All of the heads stared with hollow eyes. 

His eyes watered with tears as his stomach convulsed. He turned his head to the side and vomited, and vomited some more, until there was nothing left to throw up. Even then he retched, his body shaking and convulsing as tears traced down his cheeks. 

When finally it ended, he raised his head, and wiped vomit from his mouth with the back of his hand, wiping it against the grass. He sat there for an endless while before getting to his feet, looking out over his home. 

Rage burned within him and his eyes burned scarlet. His hands curled into fists. He let out a scream, the anger erupting from within him and scattering through the air. As he broke off into a coughing fit, the scream echoed around him, before everything fell silent.

It was almost like time had stopped.

* * *

 

Time stood still.

The spider’s body crashed to the floor with a thump that echoed around the canyon before falling silent. Kurapika stared down at the body with scarlet eyes, feeling nothing.  _ He deserved it.  _

Then, the fury and strength keeping him on his feet drained away. He stumbled but did not fall, unsteady on his feet.  _ I spent too much time in that state… _

First things first: he had to call Melody. He stumbled forward and pulled out his phone, dialling her number. The conversation was short. He hung up. 

He twisted around to look back at the Spider. He lay still, his skin still warm, from behind looking as if he were just unconscious.

_ He deserved it. _

The treacherous thought entered his mind once again:  _ What about his family?  _ That man had been a member of the Phantom Troupe. He had no family. Because of him, Kurapika had no family.

Well, he would have his revenge. It had already started. One spider down, twelve to go.

* * *

 

Twelve down, one to go.

Or, really, twelve down, and game over. Kurapika looked over at the body of the twelfth spider and tried to feel angry about it. But he couldn’t. As the blood drained from his wounds all he could feel was empty.

_ This is it, then. _

At that moment, his phone began to ring in his pocket. He almost laughed at the absurdity of it as he looked at the caller ID; here he was, bleeding to death, and Leorio wanted to talk to him.

He went to decline the call when something stopped him. Instead, he pressed the green accept button, and held it to his ear. 

“ _ Kurapika? _ ”

“Hey, Leorio.”

“ _ Finally! _ Do you ever answer your phone?”

“Sorry, I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy to talk to me? Ha, I’m joking. Anyway, how’s the mission going?”

“The- uh- the Zodiacs one? Yeah, I finished that.”

“That’s good. We were getting worried, you never reported in.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I was distracted.”

“It’s okay. Anyway, when are you coming back? Killua mentioned wanting to meet up; you know, the four of us, like the good old days.”

Kurapika gave a strained laugh, looking over the carnage of the battle. “I’d like that,” he said. He felt cold, his body weak; his vision had begun to blacken around the edges. He really would like that. He’d just never get the chance to.

“Uh… Kurapika? Are you okay? You sound…” 

“It’s fine, Leorio,” Kurapika whispered. “I just- hah. Nevermind.”

There was a hint of panic in Leorio’s voice as he asked, “Where are you?”

“Don’t worry,” Kurapika told him. “I’ll be gone soon.”

“ _ Kurapika _ .”

“Just- do me a favour, will you? Keep talking.” It was beginning to hurt now; his head was pounding and breathing was becoming harder and harder. “Please?”

Leorio gave a laugh that sounded like a sob. “Alright. What should I- What do you want to talk about?”

“Anything. I just…”

“Um… Well, Killua came round recently. It was just after you left, I never got the chance to tell you…”

Leorio continued to speak. Eventually, the feeling in his arm drained away, and the phone clattered to the floor, Leorio’s voice becoming very tinny and far away. Kurapika stared out at the carnage, and then his eyes moved up and up, until all he could see was the night sky, stained with stars. 

For the first time since he’d returned home to find his Clan dead, tears began to spill from his eyes, tracking down his face and splattering down onto his chest. His lips tasted of salt. His vision blurred. His breathing slowed. 

He found himself smiling as he slouched there, his stomach stained with blood and his face with tears. The stars swam above him. Leorio’s voice still echoed in the background, the words incomprehensible. His ragged breathing began to quiet and slow.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that it should end like this, that  _ he _ should end like this. Bleeding to death in a place far from home and far from the people that loved him, never having achieved his goals. 

Never having found peace.

_ I don’t fear death, I fear only that my rage will fade. _

That was still true; he wasn’t afraid. But he was still angry, and he wished that he could only have a little more time.

_ Give me the chance to be a happy for a moment, and I will sacrifice all my rage to you. _

Everything was dark now. Everything was silent. For a moment, it felt as if time had stopped.

And then it did.


End file.
